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A New Wrinkle to Bad Reviews
One star bad review and a “horror” story. We immediately contact the customer and ask him to come in so we can check the issue. We fix it promptly. He asks how much and we said no charge, but we’d appreciate it if you could update the review. He said that works for him. Weeks go by. No update. We contact him and ask if the problem is still OK. He said yes it is. We asked if he could update the review. He said he thought it should stay up unedited because the event did happen.
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4 Replies
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I hate it when this happens. I can understand this customer saying “well it did happen”, but a least have the respect/decency to edit the review with the fact that your shop did indeed stand behind the repair and fix whatever problem occurred at no charge. This is typically what we ask for in a situation like this (I ALSO ask, and don’t think it is unreasonable, for a upgrade from a 1 star to at least a 2 or 3 star). The owners of my shop have also “claimed the business” on Google, Yelp, etc.. so that they are able to directly respond to these reviews on social media so that in a situation like you’re experiencing, we get to at least tell our side of the story. You think these reviews are bad, wait till you get a bad review from a “customer” you can’t find in your database or even better a bad review that come from a competitor (we have had both). Claim your business when you can and set it up so that you can reply to these reviews. Also remember to post a thank you to those clients that leave you a stellar review.
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Tom,
I’m wondering if the customer misunderstood you and thinks you want him to delete the review. I’d call him back and make sure it’s still running great. If it is, I’d ask him to amend the review to show that while the issue did happen, you were quick to deal with it and make him happy. All you want him to do is put an accurate accounting of what happened which I think will resonate with his statement that the event did happen.
HTH,
Rick
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I have had both occur. I responded by pointing out they have never been in to our shop according to my database. I invited them in to actually experience our staff. I contacted the host to have the bogus reviews removed. The fact that I replied had negated any value the author thought their review may have had. Your reply is the single most important tool you have to show people what you are about.
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What shop DOESN’T have a 1-star review? I want to believe most consumers are like me in that they will always see a bad review(s) in virtually ANY business or industry. Because of this, I look at the review average, not the bad review(s). If any shop can maintain above a 4.0-star average, then they are doing things right, especially in the automotive repair industry.
When I think I have done everything humanly possible to avail, like Tom, I don’t lose any sleep over it. However, I DO post the event about making it right and tell a short story of what happened, just like Tom did with his original post. My edited version of the owner’s response would be something like…
>”We immediately contacted the customer and ask him to come in so we can check the issue. We fix it promptly. He asks how much and we said no charge, but we’d appreciate it if you could update the review. He said that works for him. Weeks go by. No update. We contact him and ask if the problem is still OK. He said yes it is. We asked if he could update the review. He said he thought it should stay up unedited because the event did happen.”<<
Tom should let this owner’s reply stay up as well, because the event did happen. Right? 🙂
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